1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to submersible traps that are deployed on a sea bed to capture crabs and other like crustaceans, and is concerned in particular with improvements in the construction and manufacture of such traps.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The submersible crab traps currently in use typically comprise truncated right circular conical cages, with an enlarged diameter bottoms close by seines, and reduced diameter top openings supporting entry funnels. Bait is suspended in the cages to attract crabs. The crabs crawl up the sides of the cages and enter via the entry funnels. Once in the cages, the crabs are prevented from escaping by the reverse slope of the cage walls.
The trap cages are conventionally constructed of steel reinforcing bar and nylon netting. As such, they are expensive to produce, in addition to being relatively heavy, cumbersome, and difficult to deploy and retrieve in the rough seas and adverse weather conditions often encountered by crab fisherman.
A need exists, therefore, for an improved cage structure that is less expensive to produce, lighter, and thus easier to deploy and retrieve.
A crab trap cage in accordance with the present invention includes circumferential spaced fill wires converging from an enlarged diameter circular base to a reduced diameter upper opening. Mutually spaced line wires encircle the cage and intersect the fill wires at cross over locations to thereby define discrete openings. The line and fill wires are preferably drawn from steel rod, and are secured to each other as by welding at the cross over locations. The line wires are indented between the cross over locations to accommodate the convergence of the fill wires.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein: